sonicwfandomcom-20200216-history
The Jungle Book (1994 film)
| starring = | music = Basil Poledouris | cinematography = Juan Ruiz Anchía | editing = Bob Ducsay | production companies = Baloo Productions Jungle Book Films Walt Disney Pictures | distributor = Buena Vista Pictures (North America and other select territories) MDP Worldwide (all other territories)https://www.ibiblio.org/samneill/films/junbooknotes.txt | released = | runtime = 111 minutes | country = United States | language = English | budget = $30 million | gross = $43.2 millionBox Office Mojo }} Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book is a 1994 live-action American adventure film co-written and directed by Stephen Sommers, produced by Edward S. Feldman and Raju Patel, from a story by Ronald Yanover and Mark Geldman. It is the second film adaptation by The Walt Disney Company of the Mowgli stories from The Jungle Book and The Second Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling and the first live-action adaptation of Walt Disney's animated film of the same name from 1967. The film stars Jason Scott Lee and Lena Headey, and costars Cary Elwes, Sam Neill, John Cleese, and Jason Flemyng. In this version, the animals do not speak. Released on December 25, 1994, by Walt Disney Pictures, the film received generally positive reviews and grossed $43.2 million in theaters against a $30 million budget. Plot In 1886, during the British Raj in India, Mowgli is the 5-year-old son of the widowed Nathoo, whose wife died in childbirth. Nathoo works as a tour guide. On one of his tours, he leads Colonel Geoffrey Brydon and his men, as well as Brydon's 5-year-old daughter, Katherine, nicknamed Kitty. Fellow tour guide Buldeo and two soldiers kill several animals for sport, which enrages Shere Khan, a tiger who serves as the jungle's keeper, and he begins to pursue the tour group. That night, Kitty gives Mowgli her late mother's bracelet as a gift. Mowgli tells Nathoo of a dream where he faced Shere Khan and showed no fear, becoming a tiger himself. Shere Khan attacks the encampment. He succeeds in killing the two soldiers, but when he tries to kill Buldeo, Nathoo defends him and is subsequently mauled to death by Shere Khan. In the confusion, Mowgli is lost in the jungle with his pet wolf cub, Grey Brother, and Brydon and his men presume him killed. Mowgli is taken by Bagheera, a gentle black panther, to the wolf pack. Mowgli also befriends a bear cub named Baloo. Twenty years later, Mowgli, now an adult, discovers Monkey City, a legendary ancient city filled with treasure belonging to King Louie the orangutan, who has his treasure guarded by Kaa the python. Forced to fight for his life, Mowgli succeeds in wounding the snake with a golden dagger that he retrieves from the treasure horde. Winning King Louie's respect, Mowgli keeps the dagger as a trophy. Elsewhere, Kitty and Colonel Brydon are still stationed in India. She and Mowgli meet again, but neither recognize the other. Kitty is also in a relationship with one of Brydon's soldiers, Captain William Boone. Infatuated with her, Mowgli travels to Kitty's village and enters her home, alerting the guards. Kitty sees that Mowgli is wearing her mother's bracelet and realizes who he is. Boone and his men manage to capture Mowgli and find the dagger from Monkey City in his possession. Kitty and Dr. Julius Plumford, a good friend of Brydon's, decide that they must reintroduce Mowgli to civilization. In doing so, Mowgli and Kitty fall in love, much to Boone's displeasure. Eventually, Boone convinces Mowgli to tell him of Monkey City and the treasure hoard that it holds, but Mowgli refrains from revealing its location to Boone upon realizing his lack of respect for the jungle. Boone later proposes to Kitty, although she is hesitant to concede. Around this time, after Boone and his men publicly humiliate him, Mowgli returns to the jungle as he does not feel at home in the village. After Boone's cruel treatment of Mowgli, Kitty realizes she cannot marry Boone, so she decides to go back to England to get away from him. Meanwhile, Boone and his associates Lieutenant Wilkins and Sergeant Harley team up with Buldeo. They recruit a jungle guide, Tabaqui, and gather some bandits to capture Mowgli in order to find out where the treasure is. Wilkins and Boone shoot Baloo when he comes to Mowgli's defense, much to Mowgli's distress. Buldeo and the bandits then ambush Kitty and Brydon, who is shot and wounded in the process. Even though Mowgli, along with Bagheera, Grey Brother, and the rest of the wolves, attack and kill most of the bandits, Buldeo manages to capture Kitty and Brydon and hands them over to Boone and his men, who plan to use them as blackmail: If Mowgli leads them to the treasure, Kitty and her father shall live. That night, the group learn Shere Khan is hunting them due to their shooting of Baloo. Because of this, Mowgli decides to escape. The next morning, Harley catches Mowgli escaping with the aid of Bagheera and chases him, only to fall into quicksand and drown, despite Wilkins' attempts to save him. Mowgli then has an elephant take the injured Brydon back to the village, after promising him to rescue Kitty. As the group make progress, Tabaqui decides that Mowgli is no longer needed and tries to murder him, only to be killed himself after toppling off a cliff. Later, Wilkins becomes separated from the group and is mauled to death by Shere Khan. Eventually, the remaining party enters Monkey City, where Buldeo inadvertently entombs himself in a trap while trying to shoot Mowgli. Only Mowgli, Kitty and Boone reach the treasure room, where Mowgli and Boone engage in a fierce fight until Mowgli injures Boone with another dagger. Mowgli then escapes with Kitty, while Boone begins greedily pocketing treasure, only for King Louie to summon Kaa, who proceeds to attack and kill Boone. As they escape from Monkey City, Mowgli and Kitty are confronted by Shere Khan, who roars at them. However, Mowgli roars back, leading Shere Khan to become impressed at his bravery, acknowledge him as a creature of the jungle, and allow Mowgli and Kitty to leave peacefully. Mowgli and Kitty meet both the Colonel and Baloo, both of whom have recovered from their injuries under Plumford's care. Mowgli becomes the new lord of the jungle after fulfilling his childhood dream of facing Shere Khan with no fear and he begins a relationship with Kitty. Cast * Jason Scott Lee as Mowgli, a man who was orphaned at 5 years old and was raised by the animals in the jungle of India. ** Sean Naegeli as 5-year-old Mowgli * Lena Headey as Katherine "Kitty" Brydon, the daughter of Colonel Brydon who is the childhood friend and romantic interest of Mowgli. ** Joanna Wolff as 5-year-old Kitty * Cary Elwes as Captain William Boone, Kitty's fiancé who desires the wealth of the ancient ruins. * Sam Neill as Colonel Geoffrey Brydon, Kitty's father who is the head of the British army stationed in India. * John Cleese as Dr. Julius Plumford, Colonel Brydon's friend who is the medical professional of Brydon's battalion and who assists Kitty in teaching Mowgli the ways of man. * Jason Flemyng as Lieutenant John Wilkins, a soldier in Brydon's battalion and Boone's right hand man. This was Flemyng's film debut. * Ron Donachie as Sergeant Harley, a brutish soldier who sides with Boone in the mutiny. * Stefan Kalipha as Buldeo, a local hunter who knows about the ancient ruins. Buldeo was a character in Kipling's stories, but was altered in this version. * Anirudh Agarwal as Tabaqui, Buldeo's partner-in-crime. He was a golden jackal and Shere Khan's henchmen in Kipling's stories. * Faran Tahir as Nathoo, Mowgli's father who was the guide for Brydon's battalion until he was killed by Shere Khan. This was Tahir's film debut. ;Trained animals * Casey as Baloo, a male black bear who was rescued by Mowgli as a cub and his best friend among the animals. * Shadow as Bagheera, a wise male black panther who took Mowgli to be raised by the wolves and watches over him. * Shannon as Grey Brother, a male wolf that Mowgli had since childhood and has been his closest companion. * Lowell as King Louie, a male orangutan who's the leader of a community of monkeys in the ancient ruins. * Bombay as Shere Khan, a male Bengal tiger who is the keeper of the jungle law. Unlike most versions where he is the villain, here he is a neutral force of nature. Kaa is portrayed by both a computer-generated and an animatronic python. Other trained animals included monkeys, elephants, camels, horses, zebus, and wolfdogs. The sounds used for the monkeys were actually those of chimps and siamangs. KNB FX Group crew member Shannon Shea doubled for Baloo in certain shots in animatronic bear suit. Production Pre-production Raju Patel, an Indian producer, figured the 100th anniversary of Kipling's "Jungle Book" stories publication should be commemorated with a film adaptation. The production was originally intended to be an independent production until Disney got involved and increased the budget. Disney chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg saw the potential of adapting the animated classic and assigned Ronald Yonver and Mark Geldman to write the project. Dissatisfied with these scripts, one of which was 180 pages long with no dialogue for the first 70 pages, Katzenberg handed the project to Stephen Sommers after being satisfied with his work on The Adventures of Huck Finn. Sommers, who is a huge fan of the original animated film and various jungle adventure films, was eager to do a lush, romantic adventure and to show the beauty of the jungle. Executives were stunned by Sommers decisions for the project as some were expecting an exact recreation of the original animated film and others wanted a teen romance to be the main focus. When it came to casting, Jason Scott Lee was Sommers' only choice for Mowgli. Disney executives labeled him as “too old" for the role until Sommers convinced them that he would be a much more believable leading man than an unknown teenager. Lee was also cast because the animals reacted to him the best. Sommers and his crew did try to cast actors in India, but due to Bollywood guidelines, their schedules and limits on the number of film works they work on would restrict them from being involved. However, they were able to cast Stefan Kalipha and Anirudh Agarwal before they agreed to any Bollywood productions. The casting of Cary Elwes as Captain William Boone, Lena Headey as Kitty Brydon, and Sam Neill as Colonel Geoffrey Brydon soon followed. The role of Dr. Julius Plumford was always written for John Cleese but Sommers was discouraged that Cleese would never accept it. It wasn't until the last minute that Cleese received the script and fell in love with it that made him want to take the role. Jason Flemyng made his film debut with this film and his role grew after Sommers instantly bonded with him. Animals For the principal animal actors, an black bear named Casey was chosen to play a role of Baloo, a male panther named Shadow was chosen to play Bagheera, a male wolf named Shannon was chosen to play Grey Brother, a male tiger named Bombay was chosen to play Shere Khan, and an orangutan named Lowell was chosen to play King Louie. Lowell being the only animal playing his character all the way through and according to Sommers, the easiest and most entertaining animal to work with. Sommers didn't want the animals to speak but have them perform as much natural behavior as possible and to do as much with the actors as possible. Animals such as rhesus macaques and Asian elephants were shot at Jodhpur and Bombay, the majority of animals were shot along with the jungle scenes in South Carolina and Fall Creek Falls State Park, Tennessee, and the scenes featuring Lowell were shot in a studio against blue screen in Los Angeles (due to the production not being able to bring him to India). One of the Asian elephants in the production was named Shirley, and she now lives at Wild Adventures Theme Park in Valdosta, Georgia. Score While electronics dominated most of his work during the early '90s, composer Basil Poledouris returned to his symphonic roots for his score to the film. Most European versions of Milan's official CD release include "Two Different Worlds", a pop song performed by Kenny Loggins. Songs, Reviews, Credits AllMusic|website=AllMusic|access-date=2016-03-31}} Release The film was released in theaters on December 25, 1994 and was a moderate box office success. Home media The film was released by Buena Vista Home Entertainment on VHS April 5, 1995. Disney also released the film on DVD January 15, 2002, January 1, 2004, and as a limited edition on May 22, 2017. Reception Critical response On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film received an approval rating of 79% based on 38 reviews, with an average rating of 6.4/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book may not hew as closely to the book as its title suggests, but it still offers an entertaining live-action take on a story best known in animated form." The film was well received, with praise for its performances, action, and visuals, but it was also chided for not staying true to Kipling's work, even though his name remains in the title. Most notably, Roger Ebert of The Chicago Sun-Times shared this sentiment. He said the film "has so little connection to Rudyard Kipling or his classic book that the title is beyond explanation." He goes on to say that it is a good film, awarding it three stars out of four, but it does not fit its target audience; some "scenes are unsuitable for small children, and the 'PG' rating is laughable." Brian Lowry of Variety said that, "Technically, Jungle Book is an encyclopedia of wonders, from the dazzling scenery (shot largely in Jodhpur, India), cinematography, costumes and sets, to the animals, who frequently out-emote their two-legged counterparts. Even so, Book may have been more effective had its story stayed on one page." Rita Kempley from The Washington Post was more favorable, stating that "the narrative shifts from romance to adventure the way Cheetah used to hop from foot to foot, but Sommers nevertheless delivers a bully family picture." Accolades The film was nominated for Excellence in Media's 1994 Golden Angel Award for best motion picture. Video game The film was adapted into a 1996 game, which includes clips from the film, while providing an original story and new characters. The game follows the player in his or her quest to save the jungle. Soldiers have stolen King Louie's crown and the player must recover it to prevent the jungle from losing its magic. The player is aided by a Scotsman named Ilgwom ("Mowgli" spelled backwards) and his chimpanzee Lahtee, while also guided by a spirit made from Mowgli's memories. References External links * * * Category:The Jungle Book films Category:1994 films Category:1990s romance films Category:1990s drama films Category:1990s adventure films Category:American adventure films Category:American films Category:English-language films Category:Films directed by Stephen Sommers Category:Film scores by Basil Poledouris Category:Films set in the British Raj Category:Films set in India Category:Films about animals Category:Films about orphans Category:Films shot in British Columbia Category:Films shot in Rajasthan Category:Films shot in North Carolina Category:Films shot in South Carolina Category:Films shot in Tennessee Category:Films set in the 1880s Category:Films set in 1886 Category:Films set in the 19th century Category:Films set in the 1900s Category:Films set in 1906 Category:Films set in the 20th century Category:Films about interracial romance Category:Walt Disney Pictures films Category:American adventure comedy films Category:Films shot in India Category:Jungle adventure films Category:The Jungle Book (franchise) Category:Disney film remakes